Social policy Tony Little examines Gladstone’s role in the introduction and abolition of the Contagious Diseases Acts The Forbidden Ground Gladstone and the Contagious Diseases Acts

Despite their fter a Commons debate on military was added to the specified towns. The medical spending in May 1864, Sir John Trelawny, examination could be repeated at regular inter- quiet passage, the Athe Radical MP, recorded in his diary, ‘I vals for up to year. A further Act, in 1869, added took occasion to mention the necessity of provid- six further towns, and raised the maximum Contagious Dis- ing measures to protect soldiers near large towns detention to nine months.6 A number of colonies eases Acts proved from some contagious diseases & several members adopted similar arrangements but Scotland had its confirmed my advice’.1 Three weeks later the gov- own regime. to be some of the ernment chief whip 2 persuaded Trelawny to delay Despite their quiet passage, the Contagious a critical motion for a week to allow the navy Diseases Acts proved to be some of the most con- most controver- minister3 ‘to introduce 2 bills he has prepared & troversial of Victorian laws and the campaign get them read a second time.’ Trelawney assured against them is viewed as a pioneering feminist sial of Victorian him that he ‘was only concerned to see govern- crusade. Gladstone is not usually associated with ment move in the matter’.4 On 18 July 1864 he the Contagious Diseases Acts. But he was Chan- laws and the cam- concluded, cellor of the Exchequer in Palmerston’s govern- ment which passed the initial legislation. When paign against A morning sitting, whereat passed in commit- Russell’s government passed the second Act, he them is viewed as tee the Contagious Diseases Bill. Ayrton made was Chancellor and Leader of the House. By the a long & excellent speech in which he stated final Act, he was Prime Minister. Gladstone was a pioneering fem- numerous objections to the scheme. The com- an informed participant in policy formation. The mittee being in a singular practical state of mind campaign against the Acts was mainly a quar- inist crusade. & determined to abate a nuisance if its abatement rel among Liberals, commanded, on both sides, were possible, went through all the clauses with- by Liberals; the repealers better organised, their out a division.5 opponents better connected. No more than 10.7 per cent of Conservative MPs supported repeal Two days later, the bill received the royal assent. in any division.7 Consequently, it was Gladstone’s The Contagious Diseases Act applied in eight ministries that felt the impact of the campaigns English garrison towns, mostly in the south, and primarily through the activities of their own three in Ireland. A police inspector could bring supporters. a woman before a magistrate as a common pros- Richard Shannon titled the second volume titute, obliging her to be medically examined. of his Gladstone biography Heroic Minister8 and If she suffered from a venereal disease she could heroic leadership is the image that fairly describes be detained in a ‘lock’ hospital for up to three Gladstone’s battles for constitutional and fiscal months. The woman could avoid a court appear- reform. But politics is, often, more concerned ance by voluntarily submitting to examination. with damage limitation than famous victories. When the Act was renewed in 1866, hospital This article re-examines the repeal of the Con- detention was increased to six months with moral tagious Diseases Acts as an exercise in timid if and religious education provided and Windsor not cowardly government. How did Gladstone

6 Journal of Liberal History 97 Winter 2017–18 The Forbidden Ground Gladstone and the Contagious Diseases Acts

William Ewart Gladstone (1809–98) in 1868

Journal of Liberal History 97 Winter 2017–18 7 The Forbidden Ground: Gladstone and the Contagious Diseases Acts manage his government to meet the conflicting reclaiming the ‘unhappy creatures’, as leader of demands of the repealers and of the medical estab- the House, Gladstone cut short the debate, pro- lishment who wished to extend the legislation? posing they leave the details for the commit- tee stage since the measure merely renewed the existing Act. 16 With the additional clauses for the The mischief may be reduced moral and religious education, the bill quickly With some of his university friends, Gladstone passed its remaining stages. had from the mid-1840s undertaken to perform Not satisfied, advocates of regulation founded ‘some regular work of charity’. Gradually this an Association for Promoting the Extension of the developed into rescuing of prostitutes in conjunc- Contagious Diseases Act of 1866 to the Civil Pop- tion with the House of Mercy at Clewer. His wife ulation, backed by the Lancet and the Harveian was fully associated with this work but was prob- Medical Society, the vice-chancellors of Oxford ably unaware of his anxiety about the temptations and Cambridge and thirty MPs.17 ‘The Conta- of the work that he confided to his diaries.9 Pri- gious Diseases Act should be extended to the civil vate concern about a moral evil became a public population’, William Acton argued, ‘for by means responsibility after the Crimean War. of its machinery alone can we discover and detain Following the poor performance of the army till cured the women afflicted with syphilitic dis- in Crimea, in 1857, a Royal Commission on the eases, and in no other way that has occurred to Health of the Army ‘noted the high level of vene- me can the supervision necessary for enabling us real disease among certain troops’.10 The com- to work a gradual improvement in their lives be mission collected statistics, discovering that obtained.’18 roughly one-third of army sick cases were vene- Gladstone’s first government extended regu- real, though for the navy it was only one in elev- lation a final time despite emerging opposition to en.11 At the prodding of Florence Nightingale, a the legislation. In 1868, Dr John Simon, the medi- departmental committee met, in 1862, and rec- cal officer of the Privy Council advised against ommended the establishment of specialist hospi- extension. The Rescue Society presented A Mem- tals, improved sanitary conditions and ‘innocent’ orandum of Objections to the home secretary, cir- occupations to relieve the tedium of life in bar- culating copies to members of both Houses of racks; but Sir John Liddell, director general of the Parliament, though their secretary feared that naval medical department, advocated a regulatory ‘very little effect was produced. The utmost apa- system to ‘arrest disease at its source’.12 thy prevailed; people would not believe our Gladstone participated from the beginning. words and would not stir.’19 On 25 July 1868 Glad- He disclosed his concerns about prostitution dur- stone read Senior on Ireland and Tracts on Conta- ing the 1857 divorce law debates, ‘I am afraid, as gious Diseases.20 He did not record his reaction. respects the gross evils of prostitution, that there When questioned on the Acts, in February is hardly any country in the world where they 1869, Gladstone responded cautiously ‘that Gov- prevail to a greater extent than in our own’.13 He ernment had under their consideration the course was similarly realistic about military behaviour, to be taken with respect to that Act’.21 ‘Con- doubting ‘the possibility of making a standing With some of his tagious Diseases Act Extension’ was the elev- army a moral institution’.14 enth item on the cabinet agenda for Saturday 24 Responding to Miss Nightingale’s Committee, university friends, April and, in May, they bought further time by Gladstone wrote, in a minute of 18 February 1862: appointing a select committee to consider the Gladstone had Acts.22 This produced the 1869 statute, which … we in this country multiply three or four- received the Royal Assent in August. fold a frightful evil among servants of the State from the mid- whom we induce and invite to place themselves in that class, while we know that by adoption 1840s undertaken The path of evil made more easy of means which are elsewhere adopted under to perform ‘some Opposition now began to mobilise. After the 1869 the direct authority of the Crown, the mischief Social Science Congress, Dr Charles Bell Tay- may be reduced within limits comparatively regular work of lor and Dr Charles Worth launched the National moderate. Anti-Contagious Diseases Acts Association.23 The charity’. Gradually movement took flight at the end of 1869 when the He suggested a parliamentary committee of the Daily News published a letter from 126 women ‘weightiest and most sensible men’ meeting ‘with this developed summarising liberal, moral, feminist and utili- closed doors’ to consider ‘a measure providing tarian objections to the regulations. The women that in the principal garrisons and arsenals of the into rescuing of claimed that: United Kingdom these women should be exam- • The Acts ‘remove every guarantee of per- ined and sent into hospital until cure’. He added prostitutes in con- sonal security which the law has established that ‘soldiers and seamen having the disease junction with the and held sacred, and put their reputation, should be subject to a special stoppage to meet the their freedom, and their persons absolutely in expense of their treatment’.15 House of Mercy at the power of the police.’ When two back benchers opposed the • By registering and inspecting prostitutes ‘the 1866 bill, regretting the lack of provision for Clewer. path of evil is made more easy to our sons’.

8 Journal of Liberal History 97 Winter 2017–18 The Forbidden Ground: Gladstone and the Contagious Diseases Acts

‘Moral restraint is withdrawn the moment ‘It is unjust to unionists, parliamentary and intellectual radicals the State recognises and provides conveni- and outraged Nonconformists’,27 promoted mass ence for the practice of a vice.’ punish the sex meetings, signed petitions, lobbied parliament • ‘It is unjust to punish the sex who are the vic- and subverted the Acts in naval towns.28 Friendly tims of a vice, and leave unpunished the sex who are the vic- MPs orchestrated deputations to ministers, repeal who are the main cause both of the vice and bills and motions to deny funding for the Acts. its dreaded consequences.’ ‘We consider the tims of a vice, and Gladstone, inadvertently, contributed to the liability to arrest, forced surgical examina- leave unpunished repealers’ first triumph. On 18 August 1869, he tion, and where this is resisted, imprisonment explained to Granville his plans for a ministerial with hard labour, to which these Acts subject the sex who are reshuffle including the ‘War Department’ which women, are punishments of the most degrad- Cardwell felt ‘ought to be more fully represented ing kind.’ the main cause in the House of Commons … The way to do this • ‘The advocates of the system have utterly would be I believe to make Storks a political offi- failed to show, by statistics or otherwise, both of the vice cer.’29 Cardwell was about to introduce a series of that these regulations have in any case, after major reforms to the army in response to Prussian several years’ trial, and when applied to one and its dreaded victories in 1866 and reinforced by the defeat of sex only, diminished disease, reclaimed the consequences.’ France in 1870. Major General Sir Henry Storks, fallen, or improved the general morality of Gladstone’s successor as high commissioner of the country.’ the Ionian Islands, had been governor of Malta30 Florence Nightingale, Harriet Martineau, Elisa- where he enforced contagious diseases regulations beth Wolstenholme and Josephine Butler were with ‘severe efficiency’.31 Storks was proposed for the most prominent signatories. Quakers such a spring 1870 by-election at Newark. At the nomi- as Priscilla McLaren, Ursula Bright and Mary nation, ‘about 3,000 persons were present’, accord- Priestman, all related to John Bright, were well ing to The Times, ‘and with the exception of a represented. Many signatories had previously little fighting the crowd was generally good-tem- petitioned for the women’s right to vote. The let- pered. Sir Henry Storks retired from the contest, ter announced the formation of a Ladies’ National his support of the Contagious Diseases Act having Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Dis- damaged his popularity, and rendered his success eases Act (LNA) with Josephine Butler as secre- impossible.’32 tary and Ursula Bright as treasurer.24 Capitalising on their victory, William Fowler, Quaker and Liberal MP for Cambridge tabled a bill to rescind the Acts. Before the We must move in the matter debate, repealers bombarded parliament with Josephine Butler, charismatic, resolute, though petitions totalling 270,000 signatures and one physically frail, was the 41-year-old daughter of MP yearned for an end of ‘that stream of offen- John Grey, Earl Grey’s cousin and an anti-slavery sive literature which has flooded our houses for campaigner. In 1852 she married George Butler several months past.’ 33 Worried, the government (1819–1890) an Anglican clergyman and Oxford bought time. At cabinet on 21 May, Gladstone examiner. Reacting against the sexual double noted ‘Commission in lieu of Mr Fowler’s Bill’.34 standards of the university’s masculine culture, Fowler introduced his bill, on 24 May, beneath Josephine began to rescue ‘fallen women’. 25 Jose- prudishly cleared public galleries. 35 But after just phine’s health forced the Butlers to move, initially two more speakers, the adjournment was moved, to Cheltenham and, then, after her daughter’s almost preventing the government announc- tragic accidental death, to Liverpool where Jose- ing its royal commission. This sparked further phine intensified her rescue work, establishing a debate requiring Gladstone to reassure MPs that small factory to provide alternative employment. the commission would consider the ‘the moral Josephine’s feminism was aroused by the inad- aspect of the question’.36 equate economic opportunities for poorer women and the gender barriers to university education. She signed the 1866 women’s suffrage petition and Due allowances for executive difficulties was president of the North of England Council are refused for Promoting Higher Education for Women. Although the royal commission provided respite, Mrs Butler hesitated to act as secretary to the the government remained under pressure. In new committee. Afraid of damaging her hus- November, Josephine Butler sabotaged an band’s career, she wrote for his permission. She attempt to elect Storks at Colchester; a campaign reported: ‘we agreed together that we must move made infamous by the mob which attacked her in the matter, and that an appeal must be made to hotel. ‘Forming the Commission of right mate- the people’. 26 rials’, caused delay and in December Gladstone In her first year Mrs Butler addressed ninety- complained to Bruce ‘But when popular feeling is nine public meetings and published ‘An Appeal excited, due allowances for executive difficulties to The People of England’, the first of many pam- are refused & I am fearful lest attempts should be phlets. Repeal groups were quickly formed in made, if the tide continues to rise, to discredit the most cities. The campaigners, a coalition of ‘trade Commission altogether.’37

Journal of Liberal History 97 Winter 2017–18 9 The Forbidden Ground: Gladstone and the Contagious Diseases Acts

Although the LNA regarded the commis- sion as a trap, opponents of the legislation were encouraged to suggest questions and witnesses. It finally began taking evidence in January 1871. The eighty-three witnesses included the police, doctors and military men who implemented the Acts, representatives from rescue missions, John Stuart Mill and Josephine Butler, pitching admin- istrative expertise against moral outrage. Despite feeling like ‘Paul before Nero, very weak and lonely’,38 Mrs Butler stated her position unequiv- ocally: ‘We know that to protect vice in men is not according to the Word of God … We shall never rest until this system is banished from our shores’.39 Mill treated the commission to a philo- sophical discussion. The royal commission disappointed any hopes of creating consensus. In May, Gladstone refused to meet a deputation before it reported but, finally, on 17 July 1871, announcing the imminent publication, Bruce revealed that:

Two-thirds of the Members were in favour of qualified compulsory application of the Acts, one-third – or rather, seven – were in favour of strengthening rather than weakening the Acts; six were in favour of repealing all compulsory legislation, and all were in favour of further legislation, with a view of modifying the law to make it applicable to the whole country.40

It was too late in the session, he concluded, for the government to introduce a bill. The report had been on the cabinet agenda for 1 and 5 July 1871 but postponed. When it was finally considered on 8 July, Gladstone noted ‘Contagious Diseases Act report: signed by 23. Allowances(?) of dissent. In the cabinet – for now repealing the later acts & revising the Act of (18)64 – no one.’41 The cabi- net were unconvinced by the commission’s main recommendation. While at Hatfield the following weekend, Gladstone wrote a memorandum exploring alter- native measures such as strengthening the current ‘repressive’ but effective law on brothels in prefer- ence to the Contagious Diseases Act or, ever the economical chancellor, deducting pay from sol- diers or sailors suffering venereal disease or even adopting ‘what I understand to be the French sys- tem, namely that the vice shall be self-supporting: that the cost of dealing with those who have ill fortune in its practice shall be borne by the mass of those who practice it.’42 Importantly, in the same memo, he con- ceded the moral case: ‘The Acts do not merely fail to corroborate or enforce the existing law: they operate against it; as they tend to establish a class of approved brothels, subsisting under a kind of concordat with public authority, hardly open to any possibility of being put down, and likely to grow, as the French brothels tend to grow, into a vested interest.’43 Over the sum- mer he continued to reflect on the Acts, reading

10 Journal of Liberal History 97 Winter 2017–18 The Forbidden Ground: Gladstone and the Contagious Diseases Acts

From top: Josephine Butler’s address to the LNA, Sursum mainly to a monstrous system of perversion and ‘Voluntary’ inspection Corda.44 exaggeration’.48 under the Contagious Towards the end of September, Gladstone MPs among the repealers argued that ‘the Disease Acts received a letter from Henry Manning, the good that was in the bill must be secured’ and Josephine Butler Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, seeking a used as a ‘lever for obtaining still more’.49 How- (1828–1906) discussion on ‘two social not political subjects’ ever, Bruce’s outburst and the residual detention Poster advertising – education and the Contagious Diseases Act powers led Mrs Butler to the opposite conclusion. a meeting to be where Manning was ‘on broad social, and ethi- ‘Satan might sometimes deceive us, but not when addressed by cal grounds very decidedly against the Act’. In his he hid his cloven hoof so clumsily’,50 ‘I and my Josephine Butler, response from Balmoral, Gladstone concedes the ladies will not in any way countenance Bruce’s Pontefract, 1872 feminist case against the acts: Bill’. 51 Although initially in the minority, Mrs Butler’s intransigence eventually held sway. On … with regard to the Cont[agious] Di[seases] the opposing side, ‘over 2000 doctors … signed Act, you will certainly have no adverse preju- a memorial in favour of the acts now in force.’52 dices on my part. They exist, & the exact mode A deputation of three peers and 147 MPs of both & time of dealing with them are matters of parties, led by Trelawny, encouraged Bruce to considerat[io]n. But I cannot say I regard them preserve the Acts.53 with much favour at any point. In part, I hate When, in July, Gladstone abandoned the bill, and nothing less, this new and flagrant use of there was little surprise but he had lost the best unequal dealing as between men and women. chance of a quick solution. Gladstone gave his Let this be very private. I write to you as an old verdict when he sought Bright’s help for Charles friend.’45 Lyttleton in the 1874 general election: ‘I do not believe him to be an Advocate of the Act: but the party opposed to them refused our Bill of 1871(or 2) which gave them nearly all they asked but A most signal example of bigotry which withheld a little modicum. It was a most sig- The cabinet contemplated the ‘exact mode & time nal example of bigotry on their part’.54 of dealing’ with the commission report the fol- lowing month. On 27 October, Bruce was asked to propose a plan. At this stage ‘Cabinet nearly all She must win her way prepared to give up all compulsory exam[inatio] When approached by yet another deputation in n’. A week later they considered ‘provisions to the late autumn of 1872, the baffled cabinet con- be made if and when Compulsory Examination sidered reintroducing their bill but as Gladstone given up. Proposed and discussed.’ Just before noted ‘Sub(ject) postponed – we are not ready to Christmas, a decision was reached: ‘Ripon [Lord decide the matter yet – Mr Bruce to give a dila- President of the Council] proposed to maintain tory answer to his deputation on Thursday’.55 Just the Acts. Determined: to repeal the Acts. New before Christmas, Gladstone headed north for the provisions considered.’ prize-giving at Liverpool College, where George Following the cabinet meeting of 30 January Butler was Head, and where he met Mrs Butler, 1872, Gladstone advised the chief whip that Bruce possibly, for the first time.56 would introduce a bill on 13 February, four days At the time, Gladstone recorded ‘At 12.15 I after the secret ballot bill, but it was not until the delivered my Address which lasted an hour as I beginning of February ‘that Provision as to deten- meant. The prizes, divers speeches and the lun- tion (was) considered’ and ‘Disposed of.’46 cheon afterwards. 2,700 persons present.’57 Since The bill contained Gladstone’s ‘repressive’ ele- the Tory governors of the school would not pro- ments but not his plan to make sin pay its costs. vide lunch for the Gladstones, the Butlers obliged. It strengthened the law against solicitation, pro- Josephine sought value for their money. As Glad- vided penalties for keeping ‘bawdy houses’, raised stone later recalled, ‘she through Mr Stansfeld, the age of consent to 14 and toughened the law on then my colleague, asked leave to converse with procuring and assault. It proposed ending com- me on the Acts. I begged to be excused. But at the pulsory examination, but extending enforced entertainment which followed the function, I sat hospital detention across the country.47 by her for the best part of two hours, and passed Bruce argued the choice lay between repeal- the bulk of the time in conversation with her. She ers, ‘who, however unreasonable their oppo- never came near the forbidden ground’.58 After- sition might have been, were backed by many wards he noted in his diary: ‘But I am not sure persons of calm and serious habits of thought’ that ever during my life I was so impressed, in a or ‘by far the largest part of the medical, naval, single conversation, with the fine mind, and the and military profession’. Destroying any possi- noble, pure, and lofty character of a woman. She bility of consensus he then characterised repeal seemed to me one who wherever she goes, must campaigners as ‘persons entitled to little belief’, win her way and carry all before her.’59 who were ‘impugning the conduct of those’ Her recollection was that ‘she led him as close administering the Acts, making ‘wild and ran- as she possibly could’, ‘but got no encouragement dom charges’, adding ‘that the agitation was due from Gladstone to go further’ and so she ‘seized

Journal of Liberal History 97 Winter 2017–18 11 The Forbidden Ground: Gladstone and the Contagious Diseases Acts

With what must upon related subjects, such as marriage, domes- Liberal, divided the House on a repeal bill. The tic life … Christ’s law of purity as binding on all.’ number of opponents had increased to 310 but have been consid- ‘He seemed struck, and took fire, as it were when I repealers had dropped only two to 128. Disraeli’s spoke. Indeed he would have become so absorbed, opposition confirmed that little could be expected erable restraint, that the guests, I saw, were wondering, and for from the Conservatives. The Liberal ex-Service decency’s sake I twice turned the other way and ministers Hartington and Goschen continued Gladstone talked to the Tory mayor on my other side.’ At to support regulation, but Childers joined for- recorded in his the end of the meal, Gladstone proposed a toast mer ministerial colleagues Stansfeld, Bright and thanking the Butlers. Grabbing the opportunity, Forster in opposition. In voting against the acts, diary for 10 May George Butler responded ‘that it was not merely Gladstone and his eldest son signalled their public as his wife but as his companion in efforts for conversion, boosting repeal morale.68 1874, ‘Read Mrs social reform that he felt thankful & proud to be thus publicly mentioned together with’ Josephine Butler’s remark- by the premier. The stunned silence of the gov- Malsano ernors was broken by Gladstone’s shouted ‘hear, Gladstone’s next, inadvertent, contribution to able pamphlet.’ hear’.60 abolition came when he replaced Stansfeld, as a Some Thoughts on representative Radical in his 1880 government, with Chamberlain. That omission freed Stans- the Present Aspect A silent vote feld to apply his ministerial skills to leading the The failure of Bruce’s bill spurred on the repeal parliamentary repeal campaign, a role labelled by of the Crusade campaign. In 1873 over 250 public meetings were the Sheffield Independent as ‘a hobby too nasty to be held.61 Growing Liberal divisions were exposed touched’.69 Against the State when, in May, Fowler tabled another bill to over- Although the new Liberal government avoided turn the Acts. On 17 May, Gladstone recorded fresh initiatives, its supporters would not permit Regulation of Vice that the cabinet would treat repeal as an open the debate to remain unresolved. Consequently, question. More Liberal MPs voted for repeal in May 1880, Gladstone reappointed a Contagious powerfully urged than against,62 but Fowler lost 130 to 253 over- Diseases select committee, whose government Christians to all. 63 Three cabinet ministers voted for repeal, nominee stalled its report until the summer of five voted to retain the acts, including Bruce, 1882, giving the administration the pretext not organise against Cardwell, at the War Office, and Goschen, at the to debate Stansfeld’s private member’s bill or to Admiralty, three abstained including Gladstone.64 produce its own measure that session. Neverthe- the Acts in every With what must have been considerable less, Stansfeld took the opportunity to remind restraint, Gladstone recorded in his diary for 10 Gladstone and Childers of their support in 1875: constituency. May 1874, ‘Read Mrs Butler’s remarkable pam- ‘I interpret the votes given by the Prime Minister phlet.’65 Some Thoughts on the Present Aspect of the and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State Crusade Against the State Regulation of Vice power- for War as nothing else than an admission that fully urged Christians to organise against the Acts “we cannot stand where we are”.’ Responding for in every constituency, but its opening paragraph the government, Childers preserved their flexibil- proclaimed: ity ‘to decide as we may think fit, after consider- ing that Report and the evidence’.70 Though when A retrospect of the last four years’ work, and Gladstone considered the issue in January 1883, he its effect upon the late general election, cannot cryptically noted ‘Conclave on Contagious Dis- fail to be encouraging. In spite of the sudden- eases Act: Malsano’ – ‘in an unhealthy state’.71 ness of the dissolution, which took us all by sur- Stansfeld concluded that the select committee prise, and gave us no time to increase or organize had undermined the medical case for the Acts and our agencies, our question played a much more thus ‘the neck of this iniquity is broken’ and that prominent part in that general election than ‘it is comparatively child’s play to deal with the most of us had anticipated or dared to hope.66 moral and religious evidence, because they can- not possibly fight us upon that ground’. Simulta- The election had produced the first Conserva- neously, Hartington was writing to Lord Ripon tive majority since 1846, put Disraeli into power that the report ‘evidently points to a future exten- and Gladstone onto the backbenches. Mrs But- sion in the United Kingdom of the Acts in the ler’s later Reminiscences were more downbeat: ‘The direction of increased protection of the civil pop- year 1874 was a period of great depression and ulation …’.72 discouragement for our cause … Our faithful par- A resolution that ‘this House disapproves of liamentary leader, Mr W Fowler, lost his seat in the compulsory examination of women under the the General election … Several of our best friends Contagious Diseases Acts’, was crowded out in in the House also failed to secure their return to February 1883 by the Kilmainham Treaty but was Parliament.’67 With repeal indefinitely postponed, submitted again by Stansfeld in April. Lord Derby Mrs Butler took her campaign to the continent, captured the flavour of the cabinet’s reaction: the heart of state regulated prostitution. Opinion in the new House was tested in 1875 Talk of the C.D. Acts, which are to be an open when Harcourt Johnstone, an undistinguished question: Chamberlain violent against them,

12 Journal of Liberal History 97 Winter 2017–18 The Forbidden Ground: Gladstone and the Contagious Diseases Acts

Gladstone doubtful, Harcourt strongly for. the government considered the Acts discretion- Comic confusion caused by Carlingford being ary and that, following Stansfeld’s resolution, suddenly appealed to: he had not been listening, it believed the Commons would refuse to pay thought the C.D. Acts relating to animals were for enforcement.79 Hartington introduced a bill concerned, & began to talk about slaughtering at abolishing compulsory inspection but preserv- the port of landing, & importation being forbid- ing powers for detaining infected prostitutes. den. A general laugh followed, which I noticed Once again this aroused suspicions among repeal- left the Premier very grave.73 ers and like Bruce’s bill it was withdrawn. Glad- stone’s second government fell in 1885 with the Gladstone’s own diary was rather more laconic: Acts still in limbo but with the climate irrevoca- ‘2 pm Cabinet: 1. Contagious Diseases – Open bly changed by Stansfeld’s resolution and W. T. Question? Yes. R. Grosvenor to make this Stead’s sensational exposure of trafficking in chil- known. Wait issue of debate for further consider- dren headlined ‘The Maiden Tribute of Modern ation. Minimise over intervention in the debate.’74 Babylon’.80 The repealers stepped up their lobbying. On 17 The Contagious Diseases Acts died as quietly April, Derby noted that: as they were born, a by-product of the 1886 home rule crisis. On 12 March 1886, the new Secretary At 3.00 Stansfeld brought with him a deputation of State for War, Campbell Bannerman, urged on the Contagious Diseases Acts, which swelled colleagues that ‘In the interests of the Health of from a small number to more than 100: Sir W the Army and the moral conditions of the garri- Lawson, Smith, the new member for Liver- son towns, it is most desirable that the Acts should pool, Dean Butler, & other known names being be repealed.’81 On 16 March, Stansfeld introduced among them … Stansfeld told me privately that a repeal resolution. Gladstone fended off a Con- he knew he would be beaten in the House, but servative amendment obliging the government he thought a strong agitation would spring up in to provide hospitals by defending the existing The Contagious the country.75 permissive regime. 82 His majority of 114 cleared Diseases Acts the way for a new bill which received the Royal On 20 April, as Josephine Butler reported to her Assent on 16 April. In Britain, the Acts were no died as quietly as sister: more. Throughout the debates, the two sides kept up they were born, It was a long debate, the tone of the speeches a contradictory barrage of statistics on the effec- both for and against, was remarkably purified tiveness of the Acts and neither conceded the a by-product of and with one exception they were altogether on case. Infection rates declined in both regulated a higher plane than in former debates. Many of and non-regulated areas but wider improvements the 1886 home us ladies sat through the whole evening till after in hygiene, changing conditions of military ser- midnight; then came the division … When Mr. vice and alternative employment opportunities rule crisis. On 12 Cavendish Bentinck was speaking against us I for women complicate any explanation. More March 1886, the noticed an expression of pain on Mr. Gladstone’s importantly, the medical profession was overcon- face. He seemed to be pretending to read a let- fident about the effectiveness of available treat- new Secretary ter, but at last passed his hand over his eyes and ments. The primary focus was on syphilis but left the House. He returned before Mr. Stans- the infectiousness of its secondary stage was not of State for War, feld made his noble speech, to which he listened fully recognised. The severity of gonorrhoea was attentively.76 underestimated. The bacterium causing syphilis Campbell Ban- was not identified until 1905 and the first proven Gladstone attended parts of the debate but left cure, the arsenic-based Salvarsan, was discovered nerman, urged at half past eleven, having ‘paired for Mr Stans- in 1910. Penicillin, an effective antibiotic discov- feld’.77 Stansfeld’s prediction proved wrong. His ered by Fleming in 1928, was not widely utilised colleagues that resolution was carried by 184 to 112. until the Second World War. ‘In the interests The resolution created rather than solved prob- lems because, as Hartington confirmed in the of the Health of debate, its passing did not change the law. The Kicked into it? cabinet needed to find a fix. On Saturday 21 April, When Stansfeld spoke to his resolution on 16 the Army and the Gladstone noted, ‘Agreed we must move. H[ar- March, he complained, ‘17 weary years had tington]n to ans[wer] on Monday that we have passed, in which many hundreds of persons, both moral conditions taken res[olution] into imm[ediate] cons[ider- men and women, had spent their time, some ation] & will in due time announce result’. A week their lives, and some had broken their hearts, in of the garrison later the cabinet met again. ‘Hartington men- the endeavour to get these Acts repealed’.83 An tioned the conclusions as to Contagious Diseases alternative perspective is that under assault from towns, it is most Act. They were approved: Metropol[itan] Police well-organised campaigners, from a substantial desirable that the withdrawn.’78 The Acts were no longer enforced minority within their own party and with their but the hospitals continued treatment. own ranks divided, Gladstone and his govern- Acts should be Inevitably, the statutes’ defenders reacted ments had delayed for seventeen years the over- strongly, obliging Gladstone to explain that throw of a policy which, their experts believed, repealed.’

Journal of Liberal History 97 Winter 2017–18 13 The Forbidden Ground: Gladstone and the Contagious Diseases Acts

In his memoir preserved the health of the country’s defence tempered, for Gladstone, by the necessity of com- forces. promising a ‘little modicum’ for practical reasons. of his grand- The weapons ministers used then would still When Mrs Butler acknowledged the need to com- be recognised by politicians today. Postponement promise a little modicum – accepting that: mother, A. S. G. is so common that the cliché used to describe it Butler suggests has been shortened to a verb – awkward issues In a matter of Parliamentary policy I should are ‘long-grassed’. Gladstone had no such inele- prefer to be guided by our leader, Mr. Stansfeld, that Josephine gant jargon but inertia and prevarication through who certainly proved himself worthy of all con- royal commissions and select committees served fidence; and I should prefer to act so as not to believed ‘that the purpose. Then as now, time created opportu- discourage by any needless hostility, those mem- nities to build consensus or, where that failed, to bers of the Government who may be coming to Gladstone could provide evidence to defend the status quo. Delay our side, although slowly it may …’ also purchased the opportunity for compromise. never see a ques- Bruce’s and Hartington’s bills were realistic offers – repeal became possible. 88 of worthwhile concession. These techniques are Gladstone never became ‘a propagandist’ of tion rightly until not heroic but they are frequently effective and repeal in the cabinet but, just as he had fostered he was kicked into were used in Gladstonian governments more and facilitated the birth of the Contagious Dis- often than historians notice. eases Acts, his known sympathies and cautious, it.’ This tells more Then as now it helps to brand activists as patient management facilitated their painless extremists, as when Bruce characterised repeal demise. about Mrs Butler’s propaganda as a ‘monstrous system of perversion and exaggeration’. The prominence and leader- Tony Little is Chair of the Liberal Democrat History uncompromising ship of women in the repeal movement was itself Group and a regular contributor, mainly on Victorian shocking but the shock was doubled when com- Liberal topics. An earlier version of this article was given persistence than bined with the ‘nauseous’, ‘noisome’ nature of the as a paper at the Gladstone Umbrella in Gladstone’s legislation84 and the fanaticism of the social pur- Library, Hawarden. Gladstone. ists attracted by the campaign. In his memoir of his grandmother, A. S. G. 1 T. A. Jenkins (ed.), The Parliamentary Diaries of Sir John Butler suggests that Josephine believed ‘that Trelawny, 1858–1865, Camden Fourth Series vol. 40 Gladstone could never see a question rightly until (Royal Historical Society, 1990), p. 276. Abbreviations he was kicked into it.’85 This tells more about Mrs have been expanded. Butler’s uncompromising persistence than Glad- 2 Henry Brand. stone. Gladstone started as a convinced proponent 3 Clarence Paget, First Secretary of the Admiralty. of regulation but one who reassessed his position 4 Jenkins, Diaries of Sir John Trelawny, p. 280. in reaction to new evidence. After his 1872 visit to 5 Ibid., p. 302. Liverpool, Gladstone explained to Stansfeld why 6 Derived from William Acton, Prostitution (Macgibbon he had made the Acts forbidden ground: ‘There & Kee, 1968, originally published 1857), p. 232, and J. L. is no use in an arrangement by which a leader of Hammond and Barbara Hammond, James Stansfeld: A any movement warmly presses his views on any Victorian Champion of Sex Equality (Longmans Green & member of the government, who is already well Co., 1932), pp. 121–2. The designated towns were: disposed towards that movement, unless he can, 1864: Aldershot, Chatham, Colchester, Plymouth, Ports- which I cannot, become a propagandist of it in the mouth, Sheerness, Shorncliffe, Woolwich Cork, The Cabinet.’86 Gladstone remained ‘well disposed’ Curragh, Queenstown despite the kicking given to Bruce’s bill rather 1866: Windsor than because of it. When he publicly revealed his 1869: Canterbury, Dover, Gravesend, Maidstone, South- support for repealing the Acts, in 1875, Gladstone ampton, Winchester was out office, not expecting future office and 7 Paul McHugh, Prostitution and Victorian Social Reform certainly not under pressure. (Croom Helm, 1980), p. 235; table 9.1 refers to the divi- After the royal commission was announced, sion on 24 May 1870. Stansfeld wrote to The Times that: 8 Richard Shannon, Gladstone Heroic Minister 1865–1898 (Allen Lane, 1999). Given Shannon’s often critical and Mr. Gladstone authorizes me to add the expres- exasperated assessment of Gladstone, I wonder whether sion of his own personal opinion that it is by the his intention was ironic. ascertained moral tendency of this exceptional 9 See H. C. G. Matthew, Gladstone 1809–1874 (OUP, 1986) legislation that it ought ultimately to be judged. p. 89ff. If the Acts can be shown to be in the words of 10 Cited in Judith Walkowitz, Prostitution and Victorian Soci- your resolution, ‘immoral in their principles and ety: Women Class and the State (CUP, 1980), p. 74. tendency,’ no supposed physical advantages con- 11 Ibid., pp. 49, 75. sequent upon their operation can justify their 12 Ibid., pp. 75–6. Only approximately 7% of soldiers were continuance, and they must be repealed.87 allowed to marry (see Acton, Prostitution, p. 125). 13 Hansard, Parl. Debs. (series 3), vol. 147, c. 854 (31 Jul. Gladstone and Mrs Butler shared a moral and 1857). feminist understanding of the legislation, but 14 Cecil Woodham Smith, Florence Nightingale (Reprint

14 Journal of Liberal History 97 Winter 2017–18 The Forbidden Ground: Gladstone and the Contagious Diseases Acts

Society, 1952), p. 315. 12,841 to Q. 13,115 on 18 Mar. 1871. edu/vwwp/view?docId=VAB7174&doc. 15 Add Ms 44752, f263. Printed in H. C. G. Mat- 40 Matthew, Gladstone Diaries, 2 May 1871; Han- view=print. thew (ed.), The Gladstone Diaries, vol. 6, 1861– sard, Parl. Debs. (series 3), vol. 207, cc. 1886–7 67 Butler, Personal Reminiscences, p. 55. Jacob 1868 (OUP, 1978), p. 183. Henceforth diary (17 Jul. 1871). Bright, another leading repealer, also lost his references are given as date of entry. 41 Matthew, Gladstone Diaries, 1 Jul. 1871, 5 Jul. seat. 16 Hansard, Parl. Debs. (series 3), vol. 182, cc. 1871, 8 Jul. 1871. 68 The Times, 25 Jun. 1875, p. 8. 814–6 (22 Mar. 1866). 42 Ibid., 15 Jul. 1871. 69 Hammond and Hammond, James Stansfeld, p. 17 Trevor Fisher, Scandal: The Sexual Politics of 43 Ibid. 189. Late Victorian Britain (Alan Sutton Publishing, 44 Ibid., 12 Aug. 1871. 70 Hansard, Parl. Debs. (series 3), vol. 272, cc. 1995), p. 21. 45 Peter C. Erb (ed.), The Correspondence of Henry 1027–30 (19 Jul. 1882). 18 Acton, Prostitution, p. 27. Edward Manning and William Ewart Gladstone 71 Matthew, Gladstone Diaries, 9 Jan. 1883. 19 Josephine E. Butler, Personal Remi- 1861–1875, vol. iii (OUP, 2013), pp. 276, 277. 72 Hammond and Hammond, James Stansfeld, nisces of a Great Campaign (Horace Mar- Manning to Gladstone, 25 Sep. 1871; Glad- pp. 225, 228. shall & Son, 1910), p. 5, accessed on stone’s response, 27 Sep. 1871. 73 John Vincent (ed.), The Diaries of Edward 11/6/2013 at http://archive.org/stream/ 46 Matthew, Gladstone Diaries, 27 Oct. 1871, 3 Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby (1826–93) personalreminisc00butliala#page/n3/ Nov. 1871, 19 Dec. 1871, 30 Jan. 1872; Memo between 1878 and 1893 (Leopard’s Head Press, mode/2up. to Glyn, Add MS 44541, f. 61, 3 Feb. 1872. 2003), p. 532. 20 Gladstone Diaries, 25 Jul. 1868 47 Hammond and Hammond, James Stansfeld, 74 Matthew, Gladstone Diaries, 14 Apr. 1883. 21 Hansard, Parl. Debs. (series 3), vol. 194, c. 303 pp. 167–8. Contagious diseases (animals) were item seven (25 Feb. 1869). 48 Hansard, Parl. Debs. (series 3), vol. 209, cc. on the agenda. The cabinet decided against 22 Matthew, Gladstone Diaries, 24 Apr. 1869; 330–46 (13 Feb. 1872). prohibiting the importation of live animals. Hansard, Parl. Debs. (series 3), vol. 196, cc. 49 C. Hopwood, as quoted in Hammond and 75 John Vincent, Derby Diaries, p. 533. Dean 808–9 (13 May 1869). Hammond, James Stansfeld, p. 173. Butler was Josephine’s husband. 23 Walkowitz, Prostitution and Victorian Society, 50 Hammond and Hammond, James Stansfeld, p. 76 Butler, Autobiographical Memoir, pp. 134–6. pp. 86, 92. 171. Hansard records Stansfeld speaking before 24 Daily News, 31 Dec. 1869. 51 Josephine Butler to Mrs Wilson, Women’s Cavendish Bentinck. 25 See Keith Thomas, ‘The Double Standard’, Library 3JBL/04/05, c.1 Mar. 1872. 77 Butler, Autobiographical Memoir, p. 135; Mat- Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 20, no. 2, 52 T. A. Jenkins (ed.), The Parliamentary Diaries thew, Gladstone Diaries, 20 Apr. 1883. April 1959, pp. 195–216. of Sir John Trelawny, 1868–73, Camden Fifth 78 Matthew, Gladstone Diaries, 21 Apr. 1883, 28 26 Jane Jordan, Josephine Butler (John Murray, Series vol. 3 (Royal Historical Society, 1994), Apr. 1883. 2001), p. 109; Josephine E. Butler, An Autobi- p. 455, diary entry for 23 Mar. 1872. 79 Hansard, Parl. Debs. (series 3), vol. 279, cc. ographical Memoir (J. Arrowsmith Ltd., 3rd edn, 53 The Times, 13 May 1872. 52–75 (7 May 1883). 1928), p. 69. 54 Letter to J. Bright, 8 Feb. 1874; Matthew, 80 See, for example, Fisher, Scandal, ch. 3–4. 27 Eugenio Biagini, Liberty Retrenchment and Gladstone Diaries, 5 Feb. 1874. Lyttleton lost in 81 J. A. Spender, The Life of the Right Honourable Reform (CUP, 1992), p. 160. Worcestershire East. Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman GCB, vol. i 28 Fisher, Scandal, pp. 25–7; Butler, Personal 55 Matthew, Gladstone Diaries, 26 Nov. 1872. (Hodder & Stoughton, 2 vols., 1923), p. 105. Reminisces, p. 262; Walkowitz, Prostitution and 56 In George Butler’s Dictionary of National 82 Hansard, Parl. Debs. (series 3), vol. 303, cc. Victorian Society, p. 151ff. Biography entry, H. C. G. Matthew claimed 981–98 (16 Mar. 1886). 29 Agatha Ram (ed.), The Political Correspondence ‘The Butlers met W. E. Gladstone at Exeter 83 Ibid. of Mr Gladstone and Lord Granville 1868–1876, College in 1853, and played some part in the 84 C. Newdegate MP, Hansard, Parl. Debs. Camden Third Series vol. 1 (Royal Historical movement to reform the university’ (accessed (series 3), vol. 201, cc. 1343–5 (24 May 1870). Society, 1952), p. 45. at http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/ 85 A. S. G. Butler, Portrait of Josephine Butler 30 He also succeeded Eyre as governor of article/4184?docPos=31 on 17/6/2013) but (Faber & Faber, 1953), p. 99. Jamaica following Eyre’s brutal suppression of writing to Dean Wellesley, Gladstone claimed 86 Hammond and Hammond, James Stansfeld, p. the Morant Bay rebellion, before returning to ‘I never saw her before or since’ (Matthew, 179. the War Office. Gladstone Diaries, 26 Jun. 1882). 87 The Times, 25 Jul. 1871, p. 11; Letter to 31 Fisher, Scandal, p. 23. 57 Matthew, Gladstone Diaries, 21 Dec. 1872. Edward Crossley concerning resolutions 32 The Times, 1 Apr. 1870, p. 12. 58 Letter to Dean Wellesley, Matthew, Gladstone passed in the Mechanics Hall. 33 Anthony Mundella in the debate on 24 May. Diaries, 26 Jun. 1882. 88 Hammond and Hammond, James Stansfeld, 34 Matthew, Gladstone Diaries, 21 May 1870. 59 Matthew, Gladstone Diaries, 26 Jun. 1882. pp. 238–9. 35 The Times, 27 May 1870, p. 9. 60 Jordan, Josephine Butler, pp. 142–3, using a let- 36 Hansard, Parl. Debs. (series 3), vol. 201, cc. ter from Mrs Butler to Henry Wilson of 23 1304–48 (24 May 1870). Dec. 1872. 37 Letter to H. A. Bruce dated 3 Dec. 1870 from 61 Butler, Autobiographical Memoir, p. 93. the Aberdare MSS printed in Matthew, Glad- 62 McHugh, Prostitution and Victorian Social stone Diaries, 3 Dec. 1870. Reform, Table 9.1, p. 235. 38 Josephine E. Butler, Recollections of George 63 Including tellers. Butler (J. W. Arrowsmith, 1892), p. 234, 64 The Times, 23 May 1873. accessed on 14/6/2013 at http://archive.org/ 65 Matthew, Gladstone Diaries, 10 May 1872. stream/recollectionsofg00butluoft#page/n5/ 66 Josephine E. Butler, Some Thoughts on the mode/2up. Present Aspect of the Crusade Against the State 39 Parliamentary Papers 1871 XIX, answer to Regulation of Vice (T. Brakell, 1874), accessed Q. 12,932. Mrs Butler’s evidence was from Q. on 18/6/2013 at http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.

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